A little over 35 years have passed since the original "Larry P." decision was handed down in 1979 by Robert Peckham, a federal judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The "Larry P. case" is a shorthand moniker that refers to a class action lawsuit, supported by the Bay Area Association of Black…

The article reviews the significance and implications of Larry P. vs Riles, which found the use of standardized IQ tests on Black children unconstitutional for the purpose of the educable mentally retarded placement unless the court gives prior approval to the testing. (CL)

School psychologists and other educators should be concerned about the issues of confidentiality, privacy and privileged communication in regard to school records such as psychological reports and intelligence test scores. Confidentiality relates to matters of professional ethics, privileged communication refers to legal rights, and privacy is a…

Describes the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Revised and discusses its use in diagnosing learning disabilities or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adolescents and adults. It addresses ethical and legal issues, the schism of standardized testing vs. modifications, assessment alternatives, and practitioner guidelines. (DB)

The court cases and legal codes cited in this article include: Brown v. Board of Education, 1954; Hobson v. Hansen, 1967; Diana v. State Board of Education (Calif.), 1970; and, California Education Code, 1972. (SF)

This Digest overviews legal challenges in five areas of test use for decision-making in schools: ability tracking, placement in special education classes, test scores as college admissions criteria, test disclosure, and teacher competency testing. Cases illustrating these challenges are described and include: Hobson v. Hansen (1967), Moses v.…

Truth in testing, competency testing, and intelligence tests constitute the central topics of this newsletter. The authors review a report prepared by the Education Commission of the States on truth-in-testing legislation and litigation, covering recent efforts at the state and federal levels to open the testing process to public scrutiny. They…

Advocates for minority students charge that special education placement of racially or culturally different students is unfair because the tests, standardized on white, middle-class children, do not accurately reflect the learning rate or potential achievement level of others. For this reason, reliance on IQ tests for placement of minority…

Legal, professional, and historical issues are examined in the report on minority group representation in special education in New Jersey. The historical and legal background traces the controversy over the use of IQ tests with minority children and notes court rulings citing overrepresentation of minority students in classes for the mildly…

An account of the hearing held by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on the Mexican American community's problems with civil rights, this report does not necessarily represent the views of the Commission but is published to stimulate public interest in the problems confronting Mexican Americans. For nearly 6 months prior to the hearing (held in…

This essay presents arguments in favor of continuing individualized intelligence testing in schools. Issues discussed include questions of validity in the concept of intelligence and its testing, ethical issues, legal issues, racial/minority and cultural issues, poor correlation between test results and teaching, and alternatives proposed by…

Commentary and advice in four legal areas are offered in this newsletter on educational law. First, the document outlines preventive legal review for public educators in four basic steps, including anticipation of legal challenges, evaluation of the challenges' legal merits, consideration of the policy issues raised by potential challenges, and…

Several major issues were raised against intelligence testing by the plaintiffs in Larry P. versus Wilson Riles. It was argued that since California used intelligence tests to ascertain who should be placed in programs for the educable mentally retarded (EMR), and since blacks performed less well on the tests than whites, it was the tests which…

Remarks made at the conference are summarized in seven sections of this narrative report: (1) update: recent events concerning testing,--representing the viewpoints of school districts, professional associations, government agencies, and research organizations; (2) National Institute of Education (NIE) study of school districts' use of test and…

Multiple self-report surveys have collected data about weapons in school. This record review study considers characteristics of 47 adolescents adjudicated for carrying weapons at school and provides a descriptive analysis against a comparison group of 37 juveniles with other offenses. Demographics, weapon type, legal history, prior school…